ACT's Pledge To New Zealand

Here's the state of play:
the economy's heading south - fast. Kiwis are finding it
harder and harder to makes ends meet. Wages are low, taxes
are high, prices are rising, and interest rates are
up.

Our education, health and welfare systems are
state-run monopolies, corroded up with the same old rusty
ideas that caused the former Soviet economy to crumple and
eventually collapse under its own weight.

They're run by
bureaucrats and unions. Patients, students - ordinary people
- don't get a look in. New Zealand is slipping further and
further behind the rest of the world. Last year we slipped
behind Greece on the wealth ladder of nations.

Our young,
our best, and our brightest, are packing up and leaving -
for good. 78,000 last year. The population of Palmerston
North. Gone. In a year.

Helen Clark and Michael Cullen are
toast. They've had their run. The country's now sick of
them, and looking for change. We're in the desperate, dying
months of a Labour-led administration that's run out of
puff.

Labour's spent nine years carving up the economic
cake - a cake baked by others - and giving it to their
mates. They've done nothing to help New Zealanders bake a
bigger cake.

Quite the reverse: they've made it tougher -
much tougher - to get ahead.Helen Clark and Michael
Cullen are gone. They'll take Winston Peters with them.
That's unless National cut a deal to keep Winston's bauble.
It's possible.

John Key started out as Labour-Lite. He's
now Labour-Strong. He's promising to do everything that
Labour's doing - and then some. He's promising to spend what
Labour's spending, plus $1.5 billion for the equivalent of a
13-lane internet highway to your house - whether you want it
or not.

He's promising a mad cap-and-trade market in hot
air, just like Labour. There's only one difference.
Helen Clark's promising to hobble our economy to get
greenhouse gas emissions down to 1990 levels.

John Key's
goal is to cut emissions to half 1990 levels. That will turn
our economy inside out, and cut Kiwis' standard of living
savagely.

If politics was all that mattered, it would be a
smart strategy for National. They'll win votes from Labour
by promising to be everything that Labour is, but with
different leadership. A change of personnel, but no change
of policy or direction. The strategy's working a treat for
John Key and his party. But it's not going to work for the
country.

If we stick with the same old policies, as
they're promising to, we'll keep getting the same old
results.

We need a change of government, sure. But that's
not all we need. Not by a long shot.More important than
a change of government, we need a change of direction.
That's where ACT comes in.

ACT can guarantee that every
party vote for ACT will count this election. That's because
we've worked hard to make me the best MP Epsom's ever had.
We've worked hard in Epsom, and we don't take it for
granted. We'll work in Epsom every day through to the
election. The good people of Epsom appreciate our hard
work. And they understand MMP. They know the smart thing for
them is to vote Rodney Hide this election.

Epsom
guarantees ACT's presence in Parliament. Our job now is to
use that opportunity for the good of the country.

That's
why I asked Sir Roger to stand for Parliament again. This
time for ACT. And once again to make the kind of difference
that only he can.

Sir Roger is the sort of politician we
so desperately need in this country. A politician of vision,
principle and guts. And that's exactly what we need in our
parliament, and in the next government.

At the beginning
of the year, we sat down and worked out what the country
needs. The first thing was a goal. ACT's goal for New
Zealand is to beat Australia by 2020. Economically.
Socially. Politically. That goal alone sets ACT apart.

All other parties are resigned to New Zealand falling
steadily behind Australia and the rest of the world. ACT
isn't. We believe in New Zealand. We believe Kiwis can
achieve. And we believe Kiwis can achieve here. Our goal is
to beat Australia, so we can bring our children home.

We
haven't a hope in hell - or should that be a hope in Helen -
of achieving our goal with present government policy.

We
needed a plan. And now we've got one. A 20-point plan that
cherry-picks best-practice policies from around the world,
and adds a few that will be international best practice once
we've pioneered them.

We're offering voters the juiciest
election bribe ever.

The ACT Party promises that if you
give us your party vote, and we hold the balance of power
after the election, we'll create an economy that gives the
average New Zealand wage earner an EXTRA $500 A WEEK.

That
sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? But that's what our
combination of policies will do. That's what we need to do
to bring our children home.

Why? Because we're already
$450 a week behind Australia, and their new Labor government
is bringing in ACT's policies, so they're going to go even
further ahead.

If we're going to build an economy that
our kids are going to want to return to, we're going to have
to grow average wages by at least $500 a week.

You don't
think we can deliver it? Well, I'm telling you we can.

All
it takes is a Minister of Finance with the guts to do what's
right for all New Zealanders. And the good news is, we've
got one. The best New Zealand's ever had. One of the best
the world's ever had: Sir Roger Douglas.

Just last month,
Roger was in Paris picking up the latest of his half-dozen
international awards for his work in transforming the New
Zealand economy. His fellow winners of the Turgot Prize for
Liberty were the former prime ministers of France and
Estonia.

John Key likes to talk about Roger's ideas as
'hard right'.If they're hard right, it's amazing how
many left-wing governments have adopted them - from Sweden
with school choice, to the UK Labour government's insistence
that all new prisons be private, to Bill Clinton's
successful reform of the American welfare system.

These
policies aren't 'hard right'. They're dead right. Most of
them are already working well in countries that are doing
much better than we are. They'll give us the growth we need,
so we can afford things like life-saving breast cancer drugs
that countries like Greece can now afford, but we
can't.

We're too poor. Why? Because of 15 years of gutless
governments.

National and Labour governments that lacked
the vision and courage of Roger Douglas and Ruth Richardson,
and put the brakes on much-needed reforms. As a result,
other countries like Ireland have leapt ahead of us, while
we tumble deeper into the OECD basement.

Ireland was where
we are 15 years ago - around 22nd. A few years after
launching reforms like we're talking about, they were 4th -
thanks to a little party like ACT called the Progressive
Democrats holding the balance of power. So there's a model
to inspire us.As a result of Labour's and National's
mismanagement, the average New Zealand worker is now $450 a
week poorer than the average Australian worker.

If we were
a state of Australia, we'd be the poorest - $100 a week
poorer than Tasmania. If we were a state of the USA, we'd be
51st and last - $120 a week poorer than Mississippi. Is it
any wonder so many Kiwis with get-up-and-go have got up and
gone?

We have a no-nonsense message for New Zealand
voters: unless you stop voting for politicians who bribe you
with short-term treats at the expense of policies that
enrich you in the long run, you'll keep getting poorer and
poorer.

John Key is not the key; Roger Douglas is. John
Key knows Labour's policies are hurting you. But he needs
Labour's voters to make him prime minister. So he won't
change them. He's copying Australian PM Kevin Rudd's
strategy of saying 'me too' to the present government's
policies - but can you spot the difference?

That's right:
Rudd said 'me too' to policies that have made Australia
richer. Key's saying 'me too' to policies that are making
New Zealand poorer.

There's only one way to save New
Zealand. Only one way to bring our children home. And that's
to make sure the ACT Party gets enough votes to hold the
balance of power and demand that Sir Roger Douglas gets back
his old job of Minister of Finance.

Who would you trust to
manage New Zealand's $175 billion economy in a
crisis?

Michael Cullen - who's squandered the best global
conditions of a generation to make us poorer than Greece?

Bill English - who did nothing much the last time he was
Minister of Finance, and is proudly promising to do nothing
much again?

Or Sir Roger Douglas - the Finance Minister
who transformed New Zealand from the East Germany of the
South Pacific into one of the freest and most respected
economies in the world?

In 1984, Sir Roger Douglas had
the guts to do what was right for this country when it
needed strong leadership. Well, we need that leadership
again. And here's how we're going to provide it: ACT's
pledge card.

It's a little bigger than most. That's
because we're the party of substance, not spin.ACT's
plan is to get you an extra $500 a week, beat Australia, and
bring our children home. It's a 20-point plan. In the
left-hand column are the policies. Next to them are some of
the countries where similar policies are already working
well. In the next column are the benefits that those
policies will bring to our people.

Then we come to the
numbers. First, the percentage boost in annual growth that
we expect each policy to generate. And next to that, by how
many dollars we expect each policy to boost the average
Kiwi's weekly pay packet.

Remember, these estimates
haven't been plucked out of the air by some young
whippersnapper with no experience in government - they come
from the one and only Sir Roger Douglas.And there's one
more column on the far right - it's the only thing on this
plan that's far right.

You see, we're going to be sending
a slightly smaller version of this plan to each of you
through the mail. The same detail, just smaller. And we'll
be inviting each of you to play Finance Minister.

In the
right-hand column, you'll be able to make the kind of
choices that Roger Douglas had to make in the '80s. You can
take out a pen and vote Yes or No to each policy. We don't
expect you to like them all. But any time you vote No to a
policy, you'll see how much annual growth and how much
weekly pay you'll be costing yourself in rejecting it.

Growth, by the way, is what allows us to pay for things
like better medicines, great teachers and more roads.

You
see, running a country is just like running your home. You
need to make tough choices. It takes guts. We'll need a ton
of that if we're going to close the average trans-Tasman
income gap of $450 a week and bring our kids home.

As
Kevin Rudd adopts many of ACT's policies in Australia - like
$31 billion in tax cuts, and plans to trim public service
fat - we have no choice but to make even more good choices
than our big neighbour.

Ireland did it in the '90s, and
their kids came home in droves. So can we, and so will
ours.

Over 30 countries now boast a better standard of
living than New Zealand's. Why? Because they've had what New
Zealand needs: the right policies, and leaders with the guts
to do what's right.

Only ACT's got those leaders. Now
let's have a look at those policies.

1) Government waste.
Cut state spending to Australian levels. Benefit: Lower
inflation. Lower interest rates. And more money left with
those who earned it. A growth boost of half a percent and
$50 a week to the average wage earner.

2) Cut and flatten
tax rates, like they have in Russia, Estonia, Slovakia, Hong
Kong, Singapore, Latvia and Lithuania. Benefit: More
incentive for people with initiative to create wealth and
jobs. A boost to growth of three-eighths of a percent and
$37.50 in wages.

3) Limit local government to core
activities. Keep those rates down. Another quarter of a
percent boost to growth and $25 in pay. In fact, the next
six promise the same increase.

4) Reform the public
service, like the new Labor government is doing in
Australia. Close departments we don't need. Reduce
bureaucracy and return it to a non-political role. Limit
Cabinet to 12 members. Limit Parliament to 100. We'll save
millions for things we really need, and we'll release public
servants to do more productive jobs that really help
people.

5) Red tape. Get rid of all nutty regulations.
Follow Australia's lead and appoint a Minister of Regulatory
Reform. This would cut firms free of red tape and allow them
to focus on creating more wealth and more jobs. Pass my
Regulatory Responsibility Bill. This would set a checklist
for good lawmaking, requiring politicians to consider the
national interest (with a small 'n'), so they can't easily
pass laws for cynical political reasons.

6) Reform the
Resource Management Act, so good projects start and finish
sooner. A similar policy in Houston has brought huge
benefits to that part of Texas.

7) Create a competitive
market in education like they have in Sweden, the
Netherlands, Ireland, Denmark, Australia - and like the
Conservatives are promising to bring in Britain. The state
funds the parents. Parents choose schools. Schools reward
good teachers. And good teachers drive education - to please
parents, not bureaucrats. As a result, kids learn more,
faster.

8) Same in healthcare. Competitive markets are
already curing more patients sooner in Switzerland, France,
the Netherlands, Germany and Sweden.

9) We'd reintroduce
competition to accident compensation as they have in most
wealthy nations. And, of course, the competitive market was
working very well here before Labour scuppered it because it
didn't conform to their Marxist ideal.

10) Welfare. We'd
create competitive markets for sickness, invalid and
unemployment insurance. Good models for welfare reform exist
in the US, thanks to the Democrats, in Switzerland, and in
Australia. Our policy would see welfare recipients back at
work sooner, and more generous support for those who can't
work. This would boost growth by an eighth of a percent and
put another $12.50 in the weekly pay packet.

11)
Immigration. We want to welcome more high quality
immigrants, so our industries get the skilled workers they
need. Immigration has done wonders for Australia and the US,
and it can do the same for New Zealand. The flow-on effects
would add a quarter of a percent to our growth and $25 to
the average wage.

12) Labour reform. This would add half a
percent and $50. Allow freedom of contract to make it easier
to trial new workers and replace poor performers. The UK,
Ireland, Denmark, Japan, Switzerland and the US have similar
laws. Their businesses run better with the right staff.
Workers and companies earn more. And the contract protects
both parties.

13) Privatisation. Sell state businesses
where private firms can serve customers better. This happens
in practically all countries, except Cuba, Myanmar - or
should I say Burma - and North Korea. It would lead to
happier customers, lower prices, and more product variety
and choice. Another quarter percent and $25 if we did
that.

14) Infrastructure. We need to build better
networks, like roads, water and electricity. We'd follow the
lead of countries like Australia, Norway, the US, Singapore
and France and replace user charges with tolls that reward
off-peak use. The smoothing of demand would reduce
bottlenecks and we wouldn't have to shell out big money for
more capacity. A boost of a quarter of a percent growth and
$25 each.

15) Policy that would add an eighth of a percent
and $12.50, is to cut the remaining tariffs on imports,
giving us free trade like Hong Kong and Singapore. As a
result, imports would be cheaper, and exporters who can't
compete will switch to fields where they can. We'd also
strengthen our bonds with the US to expose more Kiwis to US
entrepreneurial skills. A US Free Trade Agreement like the
Australians, Chileans, Canadians and Mexicans have would
boost New Zealand coffers by around a billion dollars a
year.

16) An eighth of a percent and $25 to free up more
land for housing, so as to reduce the price of sections.
This happened in Houston in the US. If applied here, it
would help more people achieve the Kiwi dream of owning
their own home.

17) Strengthen law and order policies.
Bring back private prisons - now best practice policy in
places like the UK, the US and Australia. The British Labour
government insists that all new prison be private. Here, of
course, Labour closed our only private prison, even though
they acknowledged that it was more secure, more humane, and
cheaper to run. We'd let private firms come in and free up
police, so they could adopt the 'zero tolerance' model that
made New York a safer city than Auckland. By getting tough
with young taggers, they make it less likely that they'll go
on to worse crime, and people feel safer. To make sure
justice is not only served, but served quickly, we'd speed
up the court system. Night courts currently work in New
York, California, Singapore and Canada. All told, the
benefits of these improvements to law and order would grow
our economy by an eighth of a percent, and weekly pay by
$12.50.

18) Climate change. I'm an environmental scientist
and economist and I've been studying this issue for thirty
years. And I can assure you the science is far from settled.
We've been sold a pup, and the bad news for our economy is,
it's a Great Dane. We need to adopt saner policies in this
area before New Zealand goes out of business. A low carbon
tax would be a lot more affordable than carbon trading. Why
hurt Kiwi families more than they're hurting now, when
countries that do 75% of the emitting aren't taking the
lead? The US, British Columbia and Australia are all doing a
better job than us in this area, and we should follow them.
If we did, it would add three-eighths of a percent to growth
and $37.50 to the average wage.

19) Strengthen our
constitutional framework to make democracy more democratic.
Adopt a Taxpayer Bill of Rights, like they have in Hong Kong
and twenty US states, most notably Colorado. This would cap
state spending and keep taxes low. As mentioned earlier,
we'd pass my Regulatory Responsibility Bill, so it's hard
for bad governments to make bad, self-serving laws, like the
Electoral Finance Act. This would be a world first. We
should return to the Privy Council. We're mad if we don't.
Why wouldn't we want free access to the best judicial minds
from a population of 58 million? And we should hold a
referendum on MMP. It's long overdue. The effects of these
constitutional reforms would add an eighth of a percent and
$12.50 to our growth and wage totals

20) Appoint mentors
to families at risk. If we really want to reduce family
violence and have fewer damaged children turning into
violent criminals, we've got to teach these people parenting
and life skills. Mentoring would do it. Similar programmes
are working in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Philadelphia in
the US. Thriving families are much less of a drain on
taxpayers, and we estimate this policy would add an eighth
of a percent to growth and $12.50 to the average wage.

So
that's our plan. As I said, you don't have to tick all the
boxes. But if you do, the New Zealand economy would grow by
AN EXTRA five percent a year and the average wage earner
would earn another $500 a week. And only an ACT Finance
Minister would do it.

We have a message for former ACT
supporters who are hoping that John Key will represent your
interests. He won't. Don Brash might have. But John Key
won't.

He was right when he made that stumble and said
"The Labour government I lead." Because with National's
present policies, that's the kind of government he will be
leading.

It's time to come home to the party that really
does represent your interests.

And to true blue National
Party supporters, I say this: If you really want a strong
National government, Party Vote ACT.

There's only one way
the next government is going to deliver the benefits on this
pledge card. And that's if ACT holds the balance of
power.

John Key is prepared to keep nearly all of Labour's
bad policies to win over Labour voters. He'll even keep
Winston Peters as Foreign Minister.

That approach won't
help New Zealand beat Australia. It won't get you an extra
$500 a week. And it won't bring our children home.

Strange
but true: the best way to get a strong National government
is not to vote National at all. It's to Party Vote ACT - and
make Rodney Hide and Roger Douglas the kingmakers.That
way, anyone who wants to be prime minister will have to make
Roger Douglas Minister of Finance. You'll be surprised how
quickly they'll agree!

You'll notice that we haven't put
any time frame on these policies. But anyone who knows Roger
will know that that's not because he wants to delay. He'll
want to have most of these 20 points ticked off by
Christmas. But he also realises that some of them will take
time. For example, state spending has blown out so
alarmingly that it's not realistic to cut it back to
Australian levels before 2014.

We won't outperform
Australia as a whole before 2020. But we can at least set
our sights on catching up with Tasmania by 2010, South
Australia by 2012, and so on.

Without a plan, we
definitely can't get there. With this plan, we can.

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